Apple unveils new iPad Pros with eight-core A12X chips

Apple subjects iPad Pro to biggest makeover since 2015

Apple unveiled upgraded iPad Pros at its launch event in New York yesterday, beefing up the compute power on offer and providing almost end-to-end screens.

The launch represents the biggest makeover to the iPad Pro line since they were introduced in 2015.

The new iPad Pros were unveiled alongside the new Mac Mini PC and MacBook Air laptops.

The new iPad Pros will offer a choice of 11-inch or 12.9-inch and will be powered by Apple's A12X CPU, a beefed-up version of the chip inside the new Apple iPhone XS.

Both iPad Pro models will offer a Retina display with ProMotion Technology providing a 120Hz refresh rate, like the previous generation of iPad Pros, but with the 11-inch iPad Pro offering a resolution of 2,388x1,668, while the 12.9-inch model will offer a resolution of 2,732x2,048.

Apple claims that the new iPad Pros will be up to 90 per cent faster for multi-core tasks

The cameras have been upgraded and Face ID, the facial recognition technology Apple increasingly uses for authentication, introduced for unlocking iPads and for enabling Apple Pay payments.

The same gestures adopted in the latest iPhones have also been added to the iPad Pro. Hence, users can swipe to close apps or swipe side-to-side to go from one app to another.

As a result of the much reduced bezel, the ‘home' button has disappeared - Face ID becoming the main mechanism for unlocking the devices.

There's also no headphone jack - just an industry standard USB-C connector, which also replaces Apple's proprietary Lightning port. However, users will be expected to connect headphones using BlueTooth rather than fiddling about with USB-C adapters.

The Apple A12X will offer an eight-core CPU running alongside a new seven-core graphics processor. Apple claims that the new iPad Pros will be up to 90 per cent faster for multi-core tasks compared to the discontinued iPad Pro. The new Apple Pencil, meanwhile, is auto-pairing and will attach to the side of the iPad Pro magnetically.

The iPad Pro will offer four storage options, from 64GB to 1TB.

The 11-inch version will start at £769 in the UK, while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro will cost from £969. The devices will be available from 7 November.

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